Objects old, vintage, hand made or upcyled, and old techniques with a modern twist

This garland hangs above a print tray in my studio that contains a rainbow of vintage wooden cotton reels. I enjoy crocheting, and had wanted to make a crocheted flower garland for ages, but I struggled to find the time in between other projects. However, with the help of a 50p crocheted mat from a charity shop (see picture below), and some pompoms left over form another project, I managed to make a quick and easy version, that is still handmade.

The garland is a great project for using bits and pieces of vintage haberdashery, or odds and ends from your craft/sewing stash! This is how you can make your own:

Wash and iron your mat (handmade mats/doilies like this can be found in charity shops and at car boot sales with relative ease. The great thing about this project is that if part of the mat is torn or stained, then you can discard that section and still use the rest!).

CAREFULLY unpick the stitching that holds the individual flowers together.

Select- or make- your pompoms.

Attach a pompom to the bottom of each flower. I sewed mine on, but this was time consuming and fiddly. With the benefit of hindsight, next time I will glue the pompoms to the flowers, taking care that none of the glue is visible on the final piece.

Select, or make, the string that the flowers will be suspended from. I crocheted a base chain to the desired length, as I felt that it was in keeping with the flowers.

Sew the flowers to the string. I don’t think that glue could be used for this stage, as it would be visible on the finished garland.

Hang up your garland and enjoy!

There are many variations that can be applied to this project: try dyeing the crocheted flowers; use a brightly coloured ribbon or piece of ricrac for the string; use feathers, buttons or beads instead of pompoms; try crocheted flowers of different sizes on the same garland; use pompoms all in one colour for an understated look, and/or match the colour of the pompoms to the string or flowers; make a large pompom from yarn, and attach a smaller crocheted flower beneath instead of on top…etc…..